Valtteri Bottas quickest on opening day of post-season F1 tyre test

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas set the pace during the opening day of post-season Formula 1 tyre testing at the Yas Marina Circuit.

All 10 Formula 1 teams were in action at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix venue as they got a full day of running, with the ability to evaluate Pirelli’s 2020 tyres.

Each team has 10 sets of tyres available for each day of the test, comprising a mixture of Pirelli’s 2019 and 2020 tyres.

Bottas clocked a best time of 1:37.124 to finish eight-tenths of a second clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who suffered the only notable incident of the day when he was tipped into a spin by Sergio Perez at Turn 11.

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Perez classified fourth for Racing Point, behind Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, who completed the afternoon session.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean placed fifth, in front of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the Dutchman completing 153 laps, the most of any driver.

Esteban Ocon had his first run out for Renault since 2016, having been released early by Mercedes, and completed 77 laps as he racked up experience in the R.S.19.

He will remain in the car for Wednesday’s test day.

George Russell completed the bulk of the day’s running for Williams, and will test for Mercedes on Wednesday, while Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10.

Formula 2 backmarker Sean Gelael had another outing for Toro Rosso, having tested for the team across 2017 and 2018, completing 67 laps.

Williams handed Roy Nissany his official Formula 1 test debut during the final few hours of the day and he finished significantly off the pace at the rear of the field.

The final day of post-season testing will begin on Wednesday at 09:00 local time